The Pune-based firm has appointed investment bankers Kotak Mahindra Capital and Morgan Stanley for its IPO and is in discussions with other bankers too, they said.
The IPO will include the company’s roll up business Globalbees, which was recently
valued at more than $1.1 billion making it a unicorn
. ET reported on February 3 that
FirstCry concluded a $240 million secondary funding led by India’s sovereign wealth fund, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). The company’s parent, Brainbees Solutions, is said to be valued at more than $2 billion now. SoftBank is its single largest shareholder, with around 30% stake in it.
“The work has begun for the IPO. FirstCry is aiming to go public this year but the size of the issue is not yet finalised. It would be a mix of primary share sale as well as offer for sale (OFS), where the new funding would be used for M&As (mergers and acquisitions),” said one of the persons, who did not wish to be identified.
The development comes at a time when a host of leading Indian startups such as Delhivery and Oyo Hotels & Homes have filed for an IPO but are reconsidering the timing of the launch owing to the broader rout in the markets and correction in valuation of new-age companies. “For FirstCry, an IPO would only happen in the second half of the year and the froth would settle by then,” said the person cited earlier.
When contacted, FirstCry CEO Supam Maheshwari declined to comment while emails sent to Kotak Mahindra Capital and Morgan Stanley did not elicit any response till press time.
Discover the stories of your interest
Prior to the $240 million secondary funding earlier this month,
FirstCry had conducted a $315-million secondary share sale in March last year. In total, it has now enabled investor exits of $555 million in the past one year.
Besides FirstCry and Globalbees,
the company has a logistics arm, Xpressbees, which was spun out in 2015. Xpressbees also became a unicorn on February 9, after closing a $300 million funding round.
